UK PRIME MINISTER Rishi Sunak was met with silence today when he asked workers at a Welsh brewery whether they were looking forward to the upcoming Euro 2024 tournament, despite Wales not having qualified.
Sunak asked the workers at the Vale of Glamorgan Brewery in south Wales whether they were looking forward to the football later this summer as a potential source of revenue.
There was an awkward pause after Sunak asked: “So are you looking forward to all the football?”
One brewery employee answered: “We’re not so invested in it,” to which another responded: “That’s because you guys aren’t in it”.
The Prime Minister nonetheless insisted that “it’ll be a good summer of sport”.
Sunak and Labour leader Keir Starmer kicked off their election campaigns this morning, six weeks before the UK goes to the polls. Sunak announced the surprise election yesterday in the pouring rain, taking many observers by surprise.
He his broadcast studios this morning before embarking on a two-day whistlestop trip across the UK. Keir Starmer is headed to south-east England in a sign he wants to make inroads in Tory areas.
Speaking on a visit to Gillingham in Kent, a traditional Conservative heartland, Starmer took aim at Sunak’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.
“I don’t think he’s ever believed that plan is going to work, and so he has called an election early enough to have it not tested before the election,” Starmer said.
“We have to deal with the terrible loss of control of the border under this Government, we have to tackle the small boats that are coming across but nobody should be making that journey.”
Meanwhile, Sunak insisted that the Rwanda scheme would provide a deterrent, telling GB News: “Unless you’re able to deliver that, people will keep coming.”
On a visit to a distribution centre in Derbyshire, Sunak sought to hammer his message that the Tories have a “clear plan” while Labour would go “back to square one”.
Sunak highlighted his record as pandemic-era chancellor in arguing voters should back him at the polls if they want to see economic stability.
But speaking to LBC, the Prime Minister admitted that flights to Rwanda, which are central to the Government’s ambition to “stop the boats” crossing the Channel, will now take off “after the election”.
“If I’m elected, we will get the flights off,” he said.
Pressed further on timing, he said: “No, after the election. The preparation work has already gone on.”
Starmer has said Labour’s plan to curb small boat crossings would involve a new “border command” that would work with other countries to coordinate in tackling people-smuggling gangs.
Preparations for Rwanda deportation flights persist, Downing Street said, as Whitehall “continues to deliver existing Government policies”.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said the timetable “hasn’t changed” and that “we’ve always said those early weeks of July.”
The spokesman denied timings had been affected by a recent court ruling in Belfast that provisions of the UK’s Illegal Migration Act should be disapplied in Northern Ireland
And they’re off
In London, Reform UK’s leader Richard Tice staged a press conference during which he claimed the PM was “absolutely terrified” of the threat of his party drawing voters on the right.
Honorary president of the party Nigel Farage said he would be focusing instead on getting Donald Trump re-elected rather than stand as an MP.
“I will do my bit to help in the (Reform) campaign, but it is not the right time for me to go any further than that,” he said.
“Important though the general election is, the contest in the United States of America on November 5 has huge global significance.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey is expected to visit a target seat as he launches a campaign expected to focus on winning Tory-held seats following a series of eye-catching by-election successes.
Mr Sunak surprised many in Westminster, who had expected an autumn poll, when he fired the starting gun for the summer election.
The news caused disquiet among Tory MPs fearful of losing their jobs, and those who have already said they will not stand are having to say goodbye to Parliament sooner than expected.
Despite speculation at Westminster about a Tory rebel effort to oust Mr Sunak and call off the election, one prominent critic of the Prime Minister said it was “too late” to get rid of him.
Just two more days of Commons business have been scheduled, during which important legislation will have to be rushed through.
Party whips from the Conservatives and Labour are holding talks to work out what outstanding legislation can become law before prorogation – the end of the current parliamentary session – on Friday.
That includes the Victims and Prisoners Bill, which includes measures to establish a compensation scheme for victims of the infected blood scandal.
The Prime Minister could not guarantee this would be authorised, or that Martyn’s Law and the Renters Reform Bill would be passed before Parliament is prorogued.
But he told LBC he would “do absolutely everything in my power to make sure that we do get that through”.
In his Downing Street statement, the Prime Minister said the election would be a question of trust, warning that Sir Keir was not the man to lead the country through “uncertain” times.
Sunak hopes that Consumer Prices Index inflation falling to 2.3% in April and a recovering economy will help overturn a 20-point opinion poll deficit.
Starmer said the election would be a chance to turn the page on 14 years of Conservative rule and “stop the chaos” at Westminster.
With reporting from Cormac Fitzgerald
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